The SUV door flew open, and my mother, the only family I had, stumbled through the crime-scene tape.
Her hair was disheveled, and meltwater had soaked through her winter shoes.
When she saw the body on the stretcher, wrapped in a silver thermal blanket and about to be loaded into an ambulance, she froze in place.
"Soph..."
Her anguished wail tore through the wind and snow.
My mother's knees gave out. She fell beside the stretcher and reached up with thin, trembling hands to touch my face beneath the ice crystals.
"My Soph... You've been afraid of the cold and the dark since you were little. You used to wrap three scarves around yourself just to go outside in winter... How could they lock you in a place like that? Mom came too late..."
She sobbed until she could barely breathe, press
